More than 5.2 million Americans filed unemployment claims last week as businesses remained mostly closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.
RECORD NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYEMENT
State-mandated lockdowns bring the number of unemployed Americans to a record 22 million in the past four weeks. The weekly report is the fourth straight showing more than 1 million claims.
The figures were revealed after US President Donald Trump pushed recently for the country to prepare plans to reopen portions of the economy, declaring his “total” authority over the matter. However, he said Monday he would prefer to work with states to reopening.
The states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Delaware and Massachusetts formed a regional advisory council to plan a “safe and coordinated” reopening.
California, Oregon and Washington also agreed to work on a shared approach for reopening their economies.